Lisa Madigan won't say if father ever asked her to hire someone

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan cut off reporters and dodged questions about her father, Speaker Michael Madigan during a news conference about foreclosures.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan cut off reporters and dodged questions about her father, Speaker Michael Madigan during a news conference about foreclosures. (Junru Huang)

Monique GarciaClout Street

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan brushed aside questions Wednesday about whether her father, powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan, has ever asked her to hire or give a raise to someone and also denied she misled campaign donors when raising money for a possible bid for governor.

The attorney general announced this week that she instead will seek a fourth term as the state's chief lawyer, saying Illinois “would not be well served” with a governor and House speaker from the same family. The declaration came amid scrutiny of Speaker Madigan's patronage demands of former Metra CEO Alex Clifford, who claims his downfall was the result of refusing to give into the hiring and raise requests.

It was under that spotlight that Lisa Madigan held a news conference on mortgage foreclosure relief at the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago. When reporters asked about her father or her political decision making, she cut off questions or did not directly answer them.

Asked why the conflict of interest she cited as the reason for not running for governor didn't also apply to her current office, she responded with a barb at a Tribune columnist: “It sounds to me like you've been reading too much John Kass, do you have an original question now?”

She went on to defend her record in office, saying her work speaks for itself.

Lisa Madigan also refused to directly address whether her father has ever asked that she hire anyone or give a raise to someone in the attorney general’s office, contending that she does not do the hiring.

“We receive resumes from people all over the state,” she said. “I do not deal with the hiring in our office.”

The attorney general would not say whether she supports Gov. Pat Quinn or challenger Bill Daley in the Democratic primary election that she opted to skip, and refused to discuss conversations she had with Speaker Madigan about her political future, saying they were “private.”

The attorney general did, however, defend her fundraising efforts since January, in which she raked in more than $1.5 million as she weighed whether to run for governor. Campaign donors are more likely to write bigger checks to a politician who’s potentially the next governor of Illinois than they would to someone seeking re-election to a mid-level office where they haven’t faced a serious challenge since 2002.

Madigan objected to the notion that she might have misled donors hoping she'd challenge Quinn, saying she was honest that she was still making up her mind.

“I was very open with everybody,” Madigan said. “I told them that I was in the process of evaluating how I could best serve the people of Illinois.”